The NBA schedule release always has a lot for hoop heads to get excited about. Outrage over your teams’ lack of national TV appearances and number of back-to-backs. The marquee matchups on signature days.
But two years after the NBA introduced “Rivalry Week” in late January to showcase some signature matchups, presumably with some bad blood, the lack of real animosity combined with some devastating injuries has left Rivalry Week as more like “Rivalry? Week?”
Let’s roll through the schedule and see what the NBA has offered us in terms of these “rivalries.”
Tuesday, Jan. 20
Spurs at. Rockets: Yes, the two Texas teams with the most titles have had spats before, but Mavericks-Spurs is a much bigger contest over the span of NBA history. Victor Wembanyama doesn’t have beef with anyone, not yet. No one hates Alperen Şengün.
The one team that actually does have a little bit of modern competition with Houston is Oklahoma City, but the league used that for opening night.
Lakers at Nuggets: I guess, from the perspective that the Nuggets have dismissed LeBron in short order in two of the last three playoffs, there’s some rivalry there. Nuggets fans long felt the Lakers were their rival just like every other team in the West felt that way about the Lakers, while the Lakers only felt Boston was their rival. It is Luka vs. Jokić, but those two are close friends, not enemies.
Wednesday, Jan. 21
Cavaliers at Hornets: Look, I get it. LaMelo Ball is very popular on TikTok. But are we serious with this? Just because Lonzo, who has barely played the last three years, was traded to Cleveland, this is a “rivalry?” This is where the injury to Tyrese Haliburton hurts most because you could have just had the Pacers play the Cavs, Knicks, and Bucks, and actually had some bad blood if Hali were around. This one, though, is just sad.
Thunder at Bucks: Makes sense. Who could forget their classic battles in the NBA Cup last year and… wait, no, that’s the only time these two have played a meaningful game against one another. It is Giannis vs. Shai for an MVP battle, but this feels especially forced.
Thursday, Jan. 22
Warriors at Mavericks: Why? How? Yes, the Warriors bounced the Mavericks in their fluke Western Conference Finals run in 2022, which was almost four years ago. Unless the league is projecting that LeBron winds up in Dallas …
Lakers at Clippers: This one’s fine. Two contending West teams with star power in the same city. It’s not much of a rivalry; no matter how many times in a row the Clippers beat the Lakers up until last year, it will never be a rivalry until the Clippers win multiple titles to actually vie as a serious historical franchise.
Friday, Jan. 23
Rockets at Pistons: See, it’s a rivalry! Because Amen Thompson is in Houston, and his brother Ausar is in Detroit! See? Bad blood! Grrr! What is this? What are we doing? If you want a rivalry, put Detroit vs. Phoenix, because Cade Cunningham and Jalen Green have an actual rivalry.
Pacers at Thunder: The Pacers made everyone mad last year. Everyone. Detroit, especially, had chippy games with them, and if you don’t know the history, Google “Malice at the Palace.” But instead, the league uses them in a Finals rematch where the Pacers, without Tyrese Haliburton, will get stomped. The Pacers pushed OKC to seven games, but the Thunder were still a class ahead. Using Indy here and not vs. the Knicks, who they have eliminated in consecutive seasons, is a waste.
Saturday, Jan. 24
Knicks at Sixers: Sure, if Embiid’s healthy. There’s a lot of history here, across sports, between the two cities, and New York did knock out the Sixers two years ago. But putting the Sixers on national television is always a risk given Embiid’s injury status. This doesn’t feel like a heavyweight showdown, but it could become one by January.
Warriors at Wolves: Again, why? Have the Warriors play the Cavaliers in a potential Finals showdown with some historical animosity between the cities. Have the Warriors play Miami in Jimmy’s second return. You want to save Lakers-Warriors? OK, cool. How about Warriors-Houston, where those two teams came to hate one another last year?
Lakers at Mavericks: This one’s fine. It’s Luka’s return. I get it. You have to put this one here. I’m bored by it and don’t think the Mavericks will be in the Lakers’ weight class, and there’s a 50/50 chance Anthony Davis will be unavailable for this game. But you had to put it on there.
Ultimately, the lack of exciting rivalries is a greater NBA problem. We’ve seen so many stars trade cities that continuity is hard, and you have to face a team multiple times in tough environments to build a rivalry.
What’s odd is that in an era of parity with seven different champions in seven years, the stakes should feel higher. But instead, the parity seems to make the matchups seem more random.
But the NBA would have done better by leaning on historical rivalries, including Lakers-Celtics, Cavs-Warriors, Thunder-Warriors, or even a newer one with Clippers-Nuggets, instead of forcing it with matchups of brothers.
The NBA needs rivalries. The structure of the league and the dull nature of the regular season prevent those from forming. But the NBA’s solution to that problem didn’t work in the case of this year’s Rivalry Week, which is more “‘Teams That Have A Relatively Obscure Connection, Kind Of’ Week.”